Power line communication (PLC) has been widely used in the Smart Grid environment as it represents a low cost communication solution for distribution networks and more recently smart metering. However, its instability under noisy channel conditions requires careful simulations and modelling before implementing any PLC-based solution. Modelling physical characteristics of PLC using different simulation tools has been investigated in the past and is an ongoing research challenge. In this paper, the suitability of PLC for smart metering is tested in terms of scalability and performances under different noise conditions, by using discrete event simulations for a PLC model previously validated with experimental results under the EU-funded project HiPerDNO. Index Terms-Bit error rate (BER), communication systems, noise, power line communication (PLC), smart metering I. Sivanantharasa Panchadcharam (S'09) received his BEng (Hons) degree from Brunel University, UK in 2006 and currently pursuing his PhD degree in Brunel University, UK. He is a part-time research assistant in the EU funded HiPerDNO project within Brunel Institute of Power Systems (BIPS). His research interests include design and simulation of communication technologies for Smart Grid applications, performance evaluation and QoS monitoring for real-time applications, and simulation study of IEC 61850 based communication applications for power systems.
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